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INTERIOR MINISTRY GETS READY TO RECOGNIZE
NON-ORTHODOX CONVERSIONS COMPLETED ABROAD
by Relly Sa'ar, Ha'aretz, May 3, 2005
The Interior Ministry will cease requiring people undergoing conversion to Judaism to remain for a year in a Jewish community abroad as a condition for registering them as Jews and citizens of Israel in the population registry, Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz announced yesterday.
The announcement was made at a special meeting of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee of the Knesset, to discuss the implementation of last month's High Court decision regarding the state's recognition of non-Orthodox conversions performed abroad.
Pines-Paz said the Interior Ministry was preparing itself "for the immediate implementation of the High Court ruling."
However it appears from information obtained at the Population Administration yesterday that the Interior Ministry will be giving Israeli identity cards registering their bearers as Jews only to 15 individuals who petitioned the High Court through the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC).
"With regard to the rest of those undergoing Reform or Conservative conversion abroad, the interior and justice ministries will form criteria that will determine their registration," the Population Administration said yesterday.
Pines-Paz also told the Knesset committee that his ministry would "require every rabbi to declare to the Interior Ministry that the conversion he performed was done so in a serious manner, and the rabbis are responsible for the propriety of the process."
Committee Chairwoman Colette Avital (Labor) told the committee that among immigrants from the former Soviet Union, 40 percent declare their intention to convert before they arrive in Israel, but that "after they get here, that number drops to 20 percent."
Pines-Paz told the committee that some 4,000 people are presently undergoing conversion, among them 2,500 Falashmura from Ethiopia who are undergoing strict conversion.
"The number of those undergoing conversion is relatively small, and the state should encourage them to become part of us," Pines-Paz said.
At present, only Orthodox conversion is recognized in Israel for the purpose of recognizing an individual as a Jew according to the Law of Return. The High Court ruled that conversion by Reform and Conservative rabbis abroad will be recognized as a prerequisite to immigrant status and citizenship.
However the justices also stated that the government is not authorized to determine that only Orthodox conversion can be recognized according to the Law of Return.
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